A senior police official confirmed to NBC News that a car bomb went off at a foreign guest house in Dispechari, an area behind the Kabul airport

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Afghan police black a road leading to the site of an explosion, in Kabul, Afghanistan on Aug. 1, 2016.

Three attackers and a police officer were killed in an attempted car bomb attack early Monday on a hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, authorities told NBC News.

The initial explosion at the Northgate, a secured hotel for foreigners near the Kabul airport, killed the officer and one of the bombers, police and government officials said. The two others were killed in an exchange of gunfire with police, they said.